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Welcome for breakfast

Posted on 8 Nov 2014 | 4 comments

The Serena Hotel in Nairobi is a 5-star hotel close to the centre. Whilst driving with Lara from Kuala Lumpur to London, we also stayed at the Serena in Tajikistan; in Khorog and in Dushanbe. When we were staying in the Serena in Tajikistan however, we camped in our roof top tent in the car park. This time we were actually going to stay in a room inside the Serena… We had already stayed in the Serena in Nairobi for a week during our familiarisation visit and this time it was going to be our home until we could move into our apartment.

welcome to the Serena...

welcome to the Serena…

The Serena has everything you need. It has a beautiful pool, a great gym with a lot of cardio equipment as well as weights and lots of classes. It has a spa, a sauna, a hairdresser, a shop, a bar and 2 restaurants.

enjoying our new, temporary home

enjoying our new, temporary home

lounging by the pool

lounging by the pool

trying to stay active even in the hotel, mind-numbingly boring but better than nothing

trying to stay active even in the hotel, mind-numbingly boring but better than nothing

security at the Serena, a bit more security than back at home

security at the Serena, a bit more than back at home

view of the CBD through our hotel room

view of the CBD through our hotel room

our driver Bernard picking up Jon in the morning to go to work

our driver Bernard picking up Jon at the Serena to go to work

The room had all the usual hotel items, including an enormous bed, but most importantly Simon gave us a fruit bowl and a jar of cookies every day…

Jon with yet another cookie jar

Jon with yet another cookie jar

And every morning when we walked into the breakfast area we received the standard greeting: “Welcome for breakfast”. Sometimes they would ask us if we wanted a table inside or outside, but mostly she would start walking to a table inside – we ate outside every day. Even after 4 weeks they still didn’t seem to recognise us.

welcome for breakfast... - Serena style

welcome for breakfast… – Serena style

heaven for Jon at the breakfast bar

heaven for Jon at the breakfast bar

more breakfast options than you can shake a big mango at...

more breakfast options than you can shake a big mango at…

It also had free wifi which worked most of the time. The interesting part was that the login details were your room number and your last name, which meant that any staff member with access to the reservation system could log in using our details. Fine if you have unlimited logins, not great if you only get 3. It took us more than 3 weeks to work out staff was using our logins, so we couldn’t log in, and it had in fact nothing to do with not logging out properly as they tried to tell us!

Five weeks later, after many visits to all the furniture stores in Nairobi, we had our critical items like a fridge, stove and bed delivered and we could move into our real home. When checking out on the final morning we were very surprised that the lady at reception all of a sudden recognised us and offered us a gift from the shop because we had stayed with them for so long…!

Ngong Rd, an outdoor hive of furniture making, a great place to buy things to your own design (even if it takes a bit longer to make)

Ngong Rd, an outdoor hive of furniture making, a great place to buy things to your own design (even if it takes a bit longer to make)

the street in our compound where we live now

the street in our compound where we live now

taking delivery of our fridge, stove and washing machine - a Kenyan house does not come with a stove...

taking delivery of our fridge, stove and washing machine – a Kenyan house does not come with a stove…

Now we have our own private outdoor table for breakfast on our balcony overlooking the stunning gardens, and occasionally one of us utters quietly “Welcome for breakfast…”.

welcome for breakfast... - Jon and Jude style!

welcome for breakfast… – Jon and Jude style!

4 Comments

    • Thanks A&A, if you ever make it to Africa you can stay with us and enjoy our new home too 🙂 we’ve not had anybody visit arriving on motorbikes yet 😉 safe travels!!

  1. “Compound’ sounds nice and safe. Sorry we weren’t there to help you move this time Jude!!

    • Compound is lovely. Even comes with its own gym and pool! As you weren’t here to help us move in, you’ll have to come and visit on your way to pick up ozzie in Europe this year :mrgreen: let us know when you’re dropping in for a few days! You’d love it here! !

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